Proof-of-Accredited-Investor (PAI)
Enables privacy-first verification of accredited investor status using Zero-Knowledge Proofs, ensuring compliance without exposing financial or identity details.
User Journey
Alice is interested in participating in a token sale restricted to accredited investors. With zkMe's zkTLS capability, she proves her accredited status based on income thresholds, without sharing any documents or financial details. After a single check, she receives a Proof-of-Accredited-Investor credential as a Soulbound Token (SBT) backed by a zero-knowledge proof. She can now seamlessly access investment opportunities across platforms, while keeping her sensitive data completely private.
See It in Action
Explore how users can prove accredited investor status and get their zkPoAI credential without exposing financial details.
Why Check Investor Accreditation?
Regulations are fundamental to the integrity of financial markets, including token sales and private investment rounds. Proving accredited investor status verifies financial eligibility. Regulators like the SEC in the USA and global financial authorities require platforms to conduct these checks to ensure that investments are only made by sophisticated investors that are aware of the investment risks involved.
Why zkMe zkPoAI?
Privacy first: Leverage zero-knowledge proofs to confirm accredited investor status without disclosing income or identity details.
Reliable data source: Validate investor eligibility using trusted data for reliable, regulation-aligned accreditation.
Compliance-ready: Fulfil SEC-accredited investor requirements (e.g., income thresholds) with cryptographic compliance built in.
Fully reusable: Once verified, users can reuse their zkPoAI credential across multiple platforms without repeating the verification process.
Decentralized & Secure: No central authority stores sensitive data—proofs are generated and verified without exposing private user information.
Plug-and-play: Easily integrate zkPoAI into your onboarding flow with our Web and Mobile SDKs for instant, secure accreditation checks.
How It Works
The zkPoAI procedure verifies a user's accredited investor status without revealing sensitive personal data. It leverages trusted data sources to confirm income-based eligibility. Combined with zkTLS capability, the process ensures the user’s authenticity while preventing fraudulent activities. Here's a high-level overview of the procedure:
User Income Verification:
Generate QR Code: The zkMe widget generates a unique QR code for income verification.
Scan via Mobile Device: Users scan the QR code using their mobile devices.
Redirect to Portal: Upon scanning, users are automatically redirected to the zkTLS interface via an Instant App, App Clip, or Native App.
Login: Users follow the instructions on the redirected portal to log in via the specified login method.
Authorize Data Sharing: After logging in, users will see a "Share Data" button. By clicking it, they authorize the system to proceed.
Automated Data Retrieval: The system automatically identifies and extracts the required fields (e.g., year, earning data), and prepares them for further processing.
Generate Random Numbers: The user's device generates a random number as part of the zkPoAI process.
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) protocol:
Commitment Phase: The user generates a cryptographic commitment. This commitment includes hashed information about income without revealing actual coordinates or sensitive data. And the commitment is securely stored on the user's device, ensuring it cannot be tampered with.
Challenge Phase: The verifier (the service or entity performing the verification) selects a random challenge to ensure the user's commitment is valid and sent to the user's device for processing.
Response Generation: The user’s device processes the challenge by combining it with the previously generated random number and the commitment, then sends the response back to the verifier.
Verification: The verifier checks the validity of the response and whether it satisfies the accredited investor criteria, without gaining knowledge of the user's actual coordinates.
Verification Result: Based on the verification outcome, the verifier can check if the user qualifies as an accredited investor, without explicitly obtaining their real address or coordinates.
Key Benefits
Privacy-Preserving Compliance: Investment platforms can adhere to strict SEC and global regulations for accredited investor verification without ever handling sensitive tax returns, pay stubs, or bank statements, drastically reducing data breach liability and compliance overhead.
Expanded & Global Investor Pools: Projects can tap into a global pool of qualified investors who were previously hesitant due to privacy concerns or the friction of repetitive document submission, thereby increasing capital raising efficiency.
User Sovereignty and Portability: Investors gain full control over their financial credentials. A single verification grants them a portable digital badge that can be used across multiple platforms, eliminating the need to repeatedly prove their status.
Enhanced Platform Security and Trust: The cryptographic nature of ZKPs makes it impossible to falsify accreditation status, creating a more trustworthy and secure environment for high-value investments and protecting platforms from fraudulent participants.
Automated and Scalable Onboarding: The entire verification process is automated, allowing platforms to onboard accredited investors instantly and at scale, 24/7, without manual review of financial documents.
Use Cases to Benefit
Regulatory-Compliant Token Sales: Primary issuers of tokens (ICOs, IEOs, etc.) can restrict participation to verified accredited investors to comply with securities regulations (like Regulation D in the U.S.), opening up capital markets while maintaining full compliance.
Private DeFi Investment Pools: Exclusive DeFi pools offering high-yield opportunities or early access to protocols can use zkPoAI to gate entry, ensuring sophisticated investors participate and mitigating regulatory risk.
Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization: Platforms tokenizing assets like real estate, private equity, or fine art can verify that all investors are accredited, as is often required for these types of private securities offerings.
Venture DAOs and Investment Clubs: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations focused on venture investments can ensure all voting members are accredited, legally protecting the DAO and its members when making collective investments.
On-Chain Private Placements: Traditional finance institutions moving private placements on-chain can replicate their compliance framework digitally, using zkPoAI to verify investor eligibility in a more efficient and private manner.
Pricing & Integration
From startups to scale-ups, our pricing and simple integration are designed to support your growth and follow industry best practices.
A flat rate of US$0.5 per verification applies, which is around ⅓ of typical providers charge, giving you a clear and transparent cost model.
We stand by the value of our offering and provide a price-match guarantee for equivalent services upon review of a valid quotation.
Drop us a line at [email protected] and let’s kick things off!
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